It's been too long!

You know it has been too long when friends start to call you to make sure you are still alive! Well, we are and we have been just too busy for words!

In August we visited our British friends Simon and Jo for an overnight at their "in the renovation process" mountain house in the town of Jabloncov near the Polish border. They have accomplished great things since they moved in. The interior is spacious and comfortable. The view from their rear balcony is to die for and looks very much like Tuscany. The only drawback is the two or three meters of snow that they get in the winter and the fact that the road to their house gets closed and they have to walk up the mountain! The four of us went to a small folk festival with singing, dancing and much drinking. A good meal, a walk in the mountain woods, and home the next day. Another exciting adventure this summer was the two day birthday celebration of Pam's cousin Frantisek Sila in his hometown of Hlinsko. We enjoyed all the food and drink and also the company and conversation of family and friends. A rousing and boistrious time was had by all. Unfortunately, for some reason I can not post any pictures on the blog, ..and it just closed down. So I will let this post stand and try a new one to continue the story!

Budapest

What can I say? Budapest is everything you have ever heard and more. The city is a combination of old Prague,..still recovering from years of neglect and desperately in need of constant reconstruction and Tijuana,..full of sales people trying to get you into their shop with a "special deal just for you". We did stay in a great little apartment right in the heart of the city. The apartment was in one of the alcoves that are common in the architecture of the city. The lower level was full of shops,..a woman's hat shop, a button store, a coffee shop and a cigar store. The upper levels were all housing. Neat, clean and cheap. We were about 100 meters from the Danube, the same distance from the subway and 20 meters from the main shopping street. We didn't spent a lot of time shopping. Instead we went to museums and to Buda castle. We bought transportation passes so we could just hop on and off the buses, trams and metro. It was great fun and certainly worth a trip if you ever get close. For us it was only a 5 hour train trip. This is outside the museum and in a big courtyard. Above is the view of Buda castle, a great area filled with lots of various museums including a great one of just Hungarian art. That was fabulous!

Lednice

Well we finished up the intensive English school at Lednice and once again it was fun and successful. It is always so much work to prepare lessons for beginners to advanced speakers. I often wonder if it is worth it. Then once it starts it is so much fun and everyone is so appreciative that I know all of the preparations were worth it. Ken came along again and taught a drawing class and I organized a treasure hunt and a spelling bee. One of our friends knew a man who had his own little wine cellar, so Helena took us there one evening. We had to sample all of the man's wines (about 12 different kinds). This was not like a wine tasting in the US where you get an inch in the bottom of the glass. We got a full glass of each of them. I finally had to quit after about 5 different kinds and just took sips off of Kens. We stood around in his cellar and listened to his wine stories (translated by our friend) and drank LOTS of great Czech wine.
The final party of the school was a lot of fun and Ken took his banjo along. He and the Vice-Dean, got very drunk and sang all sorts of old American folk songs and Communist workers songs. I left them singing around 1:30 and went back to the hotel. We all had a great time.
Last weekend, after the school we ran over to Prague to go to the big flea market. On the way we stopped at a little town, Ledovice. Very similar name. Anyway we visited a castle that they are just starting to restore. It was really interesting to be able to just wander through the 60 some rooms and imagine what it must have been like and what it will be like.
The Faculty of Science where I teach moved into a beautiful new building this month and I thought you might like to see the view from my office. I don't know why our department rated the best view, but we really have it! That is the sky line of Olomouc and a rose garden below it. It does make it a little hard to work with such a great view!
This weekend we are off to Budapest,...

A Passing

Last week we received word that our good friend in Paris, Rene Bruyeron, had died suddenly of a heart attack. A week earlier, Jiri's father had passed away after battling with pancreatic cancer for many months. I don't know which is worse,..a slow lingering death so that when it finally comes, it is in some measure a relief,...or the sudden unexpected death that leaves you in shock and unable to comprehend that they are gone. Certainly neither is "better". Rene was a good friend and we had just contacted him and made plans to go to Paris in September for a visit. We had been so busy since arriving that we had not had "the time". Funny how time is so relative. Rene taught us about collecting watches, fountain pens and paintings. He taught us, as only a Frenchman could about drinking good wine. We shall miss him a great deal. I have not noticed or cared so much about getting old. The skin may sag a bit more but the hair color is renewable with a bottle. What is bothersome is the loss of friends and family. We hold you all so dear,..please take care.

Mushroom time

Sunday was a beautiful day, sunny, mid 70's and a slight wind. A perfect day to go mushrooming. So we headed off to the local woods with our good friend Veronica, her daughter Barbara and boyfriend Zdenik. We went to Veronica's parents cabin and into the woods behind it. It had been a nice weekend, so many people were out and the woods had been a bit cleaned out. We were lucky enough to find a basketful of about five different variety. Under the watchful eye of the expert, Veronica's father, we cleaned them and prepared them for lunch. Then Veronica's mom took over and boiled then fried them. We all gathered for the final part,..eating them!. They were wonderful. Now I just need to go back and get some to dry for the winter. What a great way to spend an afternoon!

Back in the CR

I realized when I typed in the title how ambiguous it is. We were back in CR (Cedar Rapids) for five weeks and have now returned to CR (Czech Republic). Next time we pick a place to move to, it is going to have entirely different initials.
The trip to the US was great and we had a chance to see many friends and family. If we missed you this time, we will try to catch you next time. It is just so hard to squeeze everyone in. We are especially grateful to our good friends (really more like family) Leslie and Dennis for sharing their home with us when we were in CR. We would stop in for a few days and then take off again. The bed and the wine was always waiting when we returned. Love you guys!
We did manage to get out to New England to visit Quentin and Alana. They have moved into temporary housing as they wait for the bigger move to Toronto. That should be in the fall for Alana and around Christmas for Quentin. She will have a post-doctoral position at the University in Toronto and Quentin will be finishing up his doctorate,..or so he promises. They are discussing a wedding in June or July and probably in Toronto. They have also kicked around the idea of doing a party in Cedar Rapids, so that Quentin's family and friends don't have to travel to Toronto. More details will follow,... We also got to visit with old friend Jon Ploof and his friend, Brunna. Really wonderful to see them.
We also got to Sioux City to visit Ken's sister, his nephew's family and good friends Roger and Roger. Now that Ken's Mom is gone, our trips to western Iowa were fewer and I had forgotten just how beautiful and different that part of the state is. It was a good trip and we picked up with visits to other friends along the way. I think that the next trip we will have to head south to visit Ken's other sister and then out west to visit good friends.
The antique shop is up and running and so far things seem to be good. The city is something else. Even a year later, it still looks like a disaster zone. Abandoned houses, broken windows, trash and litter. It is really sad.
I am attaching to this a picture of the poppy fields here in the CR. The white ones are the most common and they are grown for their large seed pods, about the size of an apricot. The orange ones are rarer and have smaller pods. Not sure of the difference but the fields only last for a short time before the flowers get knocked off. As much poppy seed as they eat here, there has to be lots of fields. So Joyce and Perry, here are your pictures.
I have to make this short as we are having about 12 Czechs over for a 4th of July potluck. A new experience for them,..

Finally Legal!!

Last August when we went in to renew our visas, the regular lady was ill so this substitute foreign police officer took our applications. He immediately approved mine (I have a work visa now) but denied Ken's because Ken has a visitors visa. As this officer explained, "No one would be a visitor for two years in the Czech Republic. You must be doing something else." Obviously he did not know Ken very well. We tried to explain that Ken was a "pensioner" and didn't work and just went to museums, churches, drank coffee and drew pictures. That didn't make any sense to this officer. What followed was 6 months of trips to the police station, each time with more documentation etc. When we thought we finally had it all, we turned it in after our trip to the US. Imagine our surprise when we went to pick up the visa two weeks ago and learned that all of the rules had changed on January 1st and we now needed other papers and more stamps and seals and bells and whistles.
Last week, I am pleased to report, we finally met all of the requirements and Ken is now allowed to stay as the "spouse of an employed person",....at least until the next time we have to apply!
Like I said before,...everyday here is an adventure!

Czech Artist

Just got back from Ostrava,..about 60 miles north of here where we went to a very interesting art show. It was Czech artists from 1890-1919. A wonderful collection of realist, impressionist, expressionist and cubist. Something you would never see in most museums. It seems that only the Czechs are aware of their great artists. Here is a site for the show.
http://www.gvuostrava.cz/index.htm
Sorry it is in Czech and only one photo, but trust me it was a great show.
Classes start tomorrow and I think I am ready. I will be teaching legal English this semester and it should be fun to be back doing some legal stuff.
The antique shop opened yesterday and although I have not heard yet how the first day went, I did hear that it was busy. The local TV was down there covering the story and that always helps. Hopefully it will do well enough so that we can come back in the summer for a more relaxing visit.

A quick trip

For those of you who get the Cedar Rapids Gazette and saw the article about Ken and I being in Iowa,..it is true,..we were there. We flew in and spent three weeks sorting out the debris from the Antique shop, doing a complete inventory to figure out what we lost and putting our space back together again. We worked from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm everyday and had to come back to the Czech Republic to relax and recover. Right now we are fighting the jet lag and my body has no idea what time it is or even if it is day or night. It seems to take longer to recover each time we make the trek. We did manage to put our booths back together and the shop is scheduled to re-open this Saturday. It won't be soon enough for us. We have so much merchandise just sitting around.
To all of you who fed us and cared for us during the ordeal,...thanks,.. For those of you that we missed this trip,..we will get together next trip. We may be coming back in the summer, if things go well at the shop.
I have one more week to recover and then I start teaching again. I will be adding a class in Legal English which should be fun. Ken went to the Museum today and has returned to the drawing he was working on.
I must say that I was so glad to leave the Iowa cold. It was 55 F when we landed in Vienna and when we walked up to our door, the daffodils were poking up about an inch. I think I will cut some forsythia tomorrow and try to force them to bloom. Spring can't come soon enough for us!

A new year

It is hard to believe that it has been almost two months since I posted. Sorry but other things took priority. First there was our annual Thanksgiving feast for Czechs. Once again we were reduced to serving two small turkeys. Then there was a quick trip to Brussels for a very interesting continuing Legal Education school on family law in the EU. It made me glad that I was not a family law practitioner here! Ken went along and did the museums while I did the conference. I think he got the best deal! Of course then the semester ended and immediately after that the boys arrived to have Christmas in the Czech Republic with us. Quentin brought his fiancée, Alana, and we had a really wonderful time. This picture was taken on Christmas day in our apartment. I had it for a while as my desktop on my computer, but it made us too sad to realize that they were so far away. They all stayed for about a week and we did as much touring as possible. Unfortunately, much is closed for the winter but we managed to squeeze in some great sites, a Christmas day walking tour of a medieval castle, midnight mass at a Gothic cathedral and a visit to Mucha's history of the Slavonic People (great paintings). We ended up at Vienna and put them on the plane to fly home. That was the hardest part.
Right now I am on break between semesters and Ken and I will be traveling back to the US on Thursday to see if it will be possible to re-start the antique shop. I also need to do inventory to try to figure out just what floated away and what we still have. We will be in the states for about 3 weeks and don't know how much time we will have for visiting.
As you probably noticed we did not mail out cards or letters this year. I'm afraid this will have to do. We do think of all of you and wish you well for the coming year, love, peace, and happiness.